What is the purpose of an After Action Review (AAR) and what should it include?

• A. To guide future leadership decisions through evaluation of mission outcomes.
• B. To assign blame for failures and determine punishment.
• C. To review performance, capture lessons learned, identify corrective actions, and improve future operations and training.
• D. To inspect equipment for maintenance only.

Answer: (C)

After Action Review is a structured, non-punitive debrief conducted after an incident or exercise to learn and improve. The purpose is to review performance, capture lessons learned, identify corrective actions, and apply those insights to future operations and training.

In an AAR, participants discuss what happened, what went well, where gaps appeared, why decisions were made, and how those choices affected outcomes. The emphasis is on practical learning rather than assigning blame, aiming to strengthen plans, coordination, safety, and efficiency. The outcome is a concrete improvement plan with specific corrective actions, assigned owners, and deadlines, along with updates to procedures, training, or equipment as needed and a distribution of lessons learned to the broader team.

This fits firefighting and ICS by closing the loop on incident response, ensuring that insights from real-world operations and drills translate into better plans, readiness, and safety practices. The other options focus only on leadership decisions, punishment, or equipment maintenance, and don’t encompass the full learning and action-oriented purpose of an AAR.